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Established | 1987 |
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Location | 1350 Brush Row Road, Wilberforce, Ohio, 45384 |
Type | Public |
Director | Charles Wash Jr. |
Website | Official website |
The National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center is a museum located in Wilberforce, Ohio, whose mission is to chronicle through its collections and programs the rich and varied experiences of African Americans from their African origins to the present. It is one of many museums operated by the Ohio History Connection.
The museum is located at 1350 Brush Row Road, next to Central State University.
The concept of a national museum dedicated to African American history and culture can be traced back to the second decade of the 20th century. In 1915, African American veterans of the Union Army met in Washington, D.C., for a reunion and parade. Frustrated with the racial discrimination they still faced, the veterans formed a committee to build a memorial to various African American achievements. Their efforts paid off in 1929, when President Herbert Hoover appointed Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune, and 10 others to a commission charged with building a "National Memorial Building" showcasing African American achievements in the arts and sciences. But Congress did not back the project, and private fundraising also failed. Although proposals for an African American history and culture museum would be floated in Congress for the next 40 years, none gained more than minimal support. [1] It would ultimately take until 2016 for these efforts to be successful with the opening of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Proposals began circulating again in Congress in the early 1970s. At the same time, state officials in Ohio were also attempting to establish an African History museum. Wilberforce had been a major stop on the Underground Railroad (which helped enslaved black people find safe passage through northern states and into Canada), and the former site of Wilberforce University. In 1972, the state passed legislation agreeing to build a museum in Wilberforce. [2] In 1981, Congress approved the creation of a National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce.
The museum, built and funded with private money, opened in 1987. [3]
The museum is a Modernist structure of glass and steel, with about 10,000 square feet (930 m2) of exhibits. [4] Dr. John Fleming led the museum from 1988 to 1998. [5] Mr. Vernon S. Courtney led the museum from 1999 to 2007. [6] Ms. Edna Diggs, a curator at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, was appointed Interim Director of the museum. She died unexpectedly on June 6, 2011. Dr. Floyd Thomas was named acting director of the museum, until museum archivist, Dr. Charles Wash, was named the director in late 2011. [7]
The museum is considered a specialized museum, because it focuses only on a single aspect of African American history. [8] The museum houses the papers of Ira Tucker, a singer with the important gospel music group the Dixie Hummingbirds. [9] The museum screens a film, Music As Metaphor, which showcases some of the most popular African American musicians and singers of the era and looks at how their music echoed the themes of the American Civil Rights Movement. [10]
In February 1992, the Association of African American Museums began renting space from the museum. [11]
The museum has hosted several important exhibits. In 1998, the museum held a first-of-its-kind exhibition of African American dolls. [12] (The museum has the third-largest collection of African American dolls in the United States.) Barack Obama's election as President of the United States led to a major exhibit in late 2009 at the museum, in which 95 quilts inspired by Obama's election were displayed. [13] In November 2011, the museum received a major donation of papers, letters, photographs, and memorabilia from the estate of Colonel Charles Young. [14] Young was the third African American graduate of West Point, the first black U.S. national park superintendent, first black military attaché, first black to achieve the rank of colonel, and highest-ranking black officer in the United States Army until his death in 1922. In October 2016, the museum opened Kojo: Eyewitness to History , a retrospective of the work of Columbus photographer Kojo Kamau, known as Kojo, who had photographed notable African Americans from Muhammad Ali to President Barack Obama for over 50 years. In May 2017, the museum opened Freed Will: The Randolph Freedpeople From Slavery to Settlement. This exhibit featured photographs and letters of nearly 400 newly emancipated people who journeyed from Charlotte County, Virginia, to Ohio's Miami Valley.
On January 5, 2011, the museum closed abruptly after an extensive mold and humidity problem was discovered. The museum had suffered from roof leaks for some time, and mold was found to have widely infested the building's HVAC system. Museum director Dr. Charles Wash said that the museum would be closed for at least three months while a $433,000 cleanup began. [7] The museum reopened January 27, 2013 following renovations, mechanical system upgrades, and artifact conservation. [15]
Wilberforce is a census-designated place (CDP) in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,410 at the 2020 census.
Wilberforce University is a private historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans. It participates in the United Negro College Fund.
Charles Young was an American soldier. He was the third African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy, the first Black U.S. national park superintendent, first Black military attaché, first Black man to achieve the rank of colonel in the United States Army, and highest-ranking black officer in the Regular Army until his death in 1922.
Central State University (CSU) is a public, historically black land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio, United States. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Charles Harris Wesley was an American historian, educator, minister, and author. He published more than 15 books on African-American history, taught for decades at Howard University, and served as president of Wilberforce University, and founding president of Central State University, both in Ohio.
The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) is notable as the first museum funded and built by a municipality to help preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage of African Americans. Opened during the 1976 Bicentennial celebrations, the AAMP is located in historic Philadelphia on Arch Street, a few blocks away from the Liberty Bell. It was formerly known as the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum.
The Afro-American Historical and Cultural Society Museum is located is on the upper floor of the Greenville Branch of the Jersey City, New Jersey Public Library, its collection is dedicated to the African American experience.
African American Museum in Cleveland, Ohio was founded in 1953 by Icabod Flewellen. The Museum is housed in a 100-year-old Carnegie Library building. The Museum works to educate young people about the positive contributions of blacks to the cultures of the world, and to eliminate the distorted portrayals and images of black people.
The Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, a National Monument of the United States, commemorates the life of Charles Young (1864-1922), an escaped slave who rose to become a Buffalo Soldier in the United States Army and its first African-American colonel. It is located on United States Route 42 in Wilberforce, Ohio, in a house purchased by Young in 1907 that was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. The monument is administered by the National Park Service; the house is open by appointment for tours.
Michael Atwood Mason is an American folklorist and museum professional. He served as CEO and Executive Director of President Lincoln's Cottage. Up to February 2021 he was the Director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Wilmer Angier Jennings (1910–1990) was an African-American printmaker, painter, and jeweler. He was hired by the Rhode Island WPA to create wood-engraved prints that explored themes of economic and social hardships experienced by African-Americans. Jennings' work also included Southern themes inspired by oral folklore traditions. During his later years, Jennings studied jewelry design, which prompted him to develop new methods of jewelry manufacturing.
April Sunami is a mixed-media artist based in Columbus, Ohio. Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and private collections across the United States, and in both Ghana and Cuba, and is represented in the permanent collections of the Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth, Ohio and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio. She was described in the Columbus Dispatch by Columbus Museum of Art director Nannette Maciejunes as an heir to the legacy of Aminah Robinson. She has served in leadership roles in local arts organizations Creative Arts of Women, Mother Artists at Work and Creative Women of Color, served as assistant director at the William H. Thomas Gallery and was the first board president of All People Arts Incorporated. She is currently featured as part of the "Columbus Makes Art / Art Makes Columbus" tourism campaign as a face of Columbus art. She has a BA in Art History from Ohio State University and a MA in Art History from Ohio University. She is one of the current artists-in-residence at the Blockfort arts building. Her mentors in the world of art include Talle Bamazi, Stephanie Rond, Queen Brooks, and Bettye Stull.
Talle Bamazi is an Togolese-born Kabye painter, curator, and gallery owner. He is based in Columbus, Ohio.
Queen Brooks is an artist from Columbus, Ohio, best known for her distinctive, brightly painted, wood-burned pieces. Brooks has been described by The Columbus Dispatch as "one of Ohio’s best-known African-American artists," and by Columbus Museum of Art director Nannette Maciejunes as "a leading arts elder in our community." Brooks is an influential mentor of many younger artists, including psycheñwelic painter April Sunami. She is a past winner of the Lila Wallace, Reader's Digest International Artist Award, which gave her a fellowship in Abidjan, the capital of the West African country of Côte d'Ivoire.
Regenia A. Perry is one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. in art history. In 1975, Perry served as the first African American guest curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She has written extensively about African American artists and folk artists.
Yvonne Walker-Taylor was an American academic administrator who served as the 16th president of Wilberforce University. She was the first female African American college president in the United States.
Kimberly Camp is an artist and museum leader known for her one-of-a kind dolls and paintings, and leading influential museums and museum projects.
Kojo Kamau was an American photographer and gallerist based in Columbus, Ohio.